News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:51 hours left to live by jedsmith on Sunday March 06, 2011 @10:25AM (#2294289)
Hardly. They're fudged a bit as you say, but they're quite close to reality. Enough that I'd look at the proportion instead of the exact numbers, which is the meaning I was attempting to drive home.

The numbers are fudged by a very small amount in a certain direction, based on my observation. I observed this by refreshing one of my own submissions and watching it gain a vote or lose a vote, and I knew exactly how many people had voted on it because it was in a purpose-created subreddit. One of the admins that lurks Hacker News can probably set us straight on which is correct.

I love that whenever I make a comment here even loosely related to Reddit, someone takes it upon themselves to assume that I've never even been to the site and condescend based on what they think they know. My comment wasn't even remotely about Reddit, but thanks for the correction.

Re:51 hours left to live by chaosmachine on Sunday March 06, 2011 @11:50AM (#2294460)
Fudged a bit? The numbers are almost completely fictional, and get more so the higher the total.

http://i.imgur.com/U8B1X.jpg

Displayed numbers: 9498 Up, 6876 Down.

Real numbers: 2666 Up, 140 Down.

You cannot judge proportion by looking at the numbers Reddit shows.

Re:51 hours left to live by rospaya on Sunday March 06, 2011 @04:03PM (#2295026)
What I don't get is why they show them in the first place?
Re:51 hours left to live by Titanous on Sunday March 06, 2011 @09:33PM (#2295760)
The displayed numbers and real numbers have a two hour gap between them. This conclusion cannot be derived from the posted screenshot.
Re:51 hours left to live by dalore on Sunday March 06, 2011 @11:54AM (#2294467)
The bigger the number the more the fudge. And they don't just keep it in proportion too. Most articles on the frontpage have a 66% upvote ratio.
Re:51 hours left to live by seabee on Sunday March 06, 2011 @12:16PM (#2294501)
The 66% ratio is something of a meme in Reddit meta-discussion, and has been for a year or more. (As are complaints of 'why would anyone downvote this'.)